BGleas

Agree, and when you remove JHS and/or XJ it makes a big difference.

We also haven't had XJ and JHS together really since really the UNC game. That's a pretty massive blow to our perimeter defense that i don't think should be minimized.

I've always thought JG was a pretty bad perimeter defender, which is what defending Murray is. He's really strong typically on the block and as a weak side shot blocker, but he's always been rough on the perimeter. I think losing Phinisee and Stewart has hurt defensively as well. I don't love those guys as players, and think many fans overrated Phinisee, but no denying he was a phenomenal perimeter defender for IU.

He was the most glaring one though, by a pretty wide margin. Did you watch the clip on that link, it was really bad.

Yikes! Pretty damning indictment of JG and how bad his defense was Thursday.

What's puzzling to me is that towards the end of last season it was crystal clear that the offense was much more effective when we were using TJD in the PnR game with XJ vs most of the season when it was post up TJD and everyone stand around. With XJ back and adding JHS, along with what I thought we learned at the end of last season, I thought the offense would be much more dynamic and perimeter oriented with using TJD like most NBA teams use their bigs (PnR, rim runs, etc). Very little of that had happened and it's pretty disappointing.

And far too often neither brings energy or effort on the road. Both were brutal in transition today and just slow and nonchalant in their movement.

And they were down 7-0 early and then something like 12-3, but while watching I never doubted they would come back. You just knew watching their guys that they were mentally tough and wouldn't panic. When was the last time IU was like that?

I just wonder with this core group, and especially TJD and Race, where does the on floor leadership and mental toughness come from? Games like today on the road and the at Rutgers game have been far to common the last 4-5 years and it doesn't seem to change. Who are the guys, if any, that are really pissed off after some of these recent performances? Who is the guy, outside of the coach, losing his crap in the locker room and getting in guys faces? I don’t think IU has that and I don't think we've had that in a long time.

I would he extremely surprised if that happens. They may get more run but mainly because we're playing Elon and Kenneesaw.

I was told after the Xavier game that you can't expect calls on the road!?!?

Agree. No issues at all with JHS hunting his shots tonight a bit after a tough shooting night at Xavier. We need him to get comfortable and going offensively to reach our potential. This was a perfect game to try and get it going.

Love the energy Geronimo played with. He needs to be a garbage pail, energy guy. When he plays like that consistently then all of the other stuff will come.

Completely agree. As a coach you'd rather have to work to tone some of that down as opposed to having to coach your guys to care. I'll take XJ and Reneau's emotion every day of the week and twice on Sunday, vs the robot like and emotionless play we watched for 4 years under Archie.

I think you just made my point by highlighting the hypocrisy of it all. So, the home team can taunt but the road team can't? Players don't care about the trash talk. It's part of the game. They honestly don't care. It's the adults (rule makers, refs and fans) that make this stuff a big deal. According to TJD, the Xavier bench was taunting XJ and then he turned around (didn't say anything) after hitting the 3. Why no tech for the Xavier bench?

Completely agree. Freemantle literally turned around and stared down Galloway after his oop dunk. Like, he had to turn back around to stare at him. How is that any different then what IU guys did?

I don’t disagree with you. It's just a tricky slope though, as if we're going down this path on this point of emphasis, then the refs need to apply it across the board. Freemantle was staring guys down all night. Xavier players were being quite demonstrative towards officials at numerous times when they disagreed with calls. Yet, no techs on them? I'm not saying it was purposeful or anything, just saying this taunting tech thing is very subjective and can't be applied only in certain spots. I think the officials made things worse last night, not better, with those techs.

The only thing I would say though is that you can't get Reneau and Geronimo more minutes. The math doesn't work. In the games against non-cupcakes, we know TJD is getting a ton of minutes and there is only one more "big" spot between Race, Reneau and JG. If you're giving Reneau more minutes then that would come from Race. Where do more minutes for JG come from?

Agree. I don't get the Kopp hate. Would be ideal to have a better player at that spot? Sure, of course. But that doesn't exist on this roster, at least not yet. Kopp is a solid shooter and a threat defenses have to respect. One more three last night and he's 2-5 and nobody is complaining. Beyond that, he plays good, tough perimeter defense, knows and understands the system on both ends, doesn't really turn it over, etc. Until Bates, or someone else, steps up their game, shows they understand the system and is consistent defensively, Kopp is the best option. Coaches play the guys they trust.

Not to nitpick, but Reneau's own teammate averaged 13.5 ppg and 8.4 rpg as a freshmen, and Thomas Bryant averaged 12 ppg and 5.8 rpg on an outright Big Ten Title/Sweet Sixteen team.

I think it was Jeremy Hollowell his sophomore year. It was a complete disaster.

My bad, should have read the thread. I was just responding to Aloha.

Completely agree, and he has a long way to go on both ends before he's a better 3 than 4. To be clear, I think JG is a really strong defender as a 4 when defending bigs, he struggles to defend on the perimeter against guards/wings on switches.

It's like anytime a big man hits a 3 and/or gets a board and pushes it in transition, everyone wants to make them a wing. Race's advantage is that he can do those things as a big and against other bigs.

Walton was the lead national announcer for NBC back in the 90's and was really good. As someone said earlier, these guys get older and become paradies of themselves, etc., but Walton used to be good on the analysis side.